Visser, Arie

Dutch polder boy Arie Visser was destined to follow in his father’s footsteps in the management of the family construction company and therefore studied engineering. In his time and surroundings there was little room for the pursuit of his own interests. Alongside a serious and dutiful life as managing director, husband, father and member of the church, Visser retained his great cultural interests and a child-like lack of concern, which he expressed in his paintings and drawings. Opposite the strict Calvinist life in grey and brown interiors, full of obligations and control – where there was no place for desires and fantasies – Visser placed his art with its lyrical or even exuberant variegation. Always with a biblical theme and with an educational undertone. The Stedelijk Museum Amsterdam has several beautiful paintings made by the pious Arie Visser in his later life. De Stadshof Collection includes a series of drawings from his hand in pencil and coloured pencil.
Education: University of Technology, Delft, civil engineering.
Relevant info: As a young engineer he was posted to Lebanon to work on the Damascus-Beirut waterworks. Numerous trips in the Middle East (Egypt, Palestine, etc.).
Start artwork: after retirement, 1949.
References: Visser, M., Kleurenpracht en rechtgelovigheid. De schilderijen en tekeningen van Arie Visser, 2002;
Van der Endt, Nico; Lexicon Nederlandse naïeve kunst van de twintigste eeuw / Lexicon of twentieth century Dutch naïve art, Venlo/Antwerpen, 1995, pp. 122-123.